Bradley joined
the staff of the venerable news magazine 26
years ago. His consummate skills as a broadcast
journalist and his distinctive body of work were
recognized with numerous awards, including 19
Emmys, the latest for a segment that reported
the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder
case of Emmett Till.
Bradley grew up in a tough section of
Philadelphia, was wounded while covering the
Vietnam War and later became the first black
White House correspondent for CBS News.
He was a man who broke down racial barriers -
and became a role model for young African
Americans, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl
reports.
"The pressure is there," Bradley said. "It's
been there every day of my life."
In a special report, CBS Evening News anchor
Katie Couric said Bradley was "considered
intelligent, smooth, cool, a great reporter,
beloved and respected by all his colleagues here
at CBS News." Watch the report.
"He certainly was a reporter's reporter," fellow
60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace told CBS
News Radio.
Bradley was honored with the Lifetime
Achievement award from the National Association
of Black Journalists. Three of his Emmys came at
the 2003 awards: a Lifetime Achievement Emmy;
one for a 60 Minutes report on brain cancer
patients, "A New Lease on Life;" and another for
an hour-long piece about sexual abuse in the
Catholic Church, “The Catholic Church on Trial."
Watch the video report. Read part I. Read Part
II.
Whether grilling the mass murderer of Oklahoma
City or getting a legend like George Burns to
drop his guard, he brought hundreds of stories —
and countless unforgettable moments — to 60
Minutes.
But at work his nickname was Easy Ed. He made it
look effortless, as someone said: like he wasn't
really working, Stahl reports.
The news weighed heavy on those who worked with
Bradley.
"It’s an incredibly sad day for everyone at CBS
News. Ed was a phenomenal reporter and a great
man," Senior Broadcast Producer Bill Owens told
CBSNews.com. "Never have the words, 'he will be
missed' meant more."
In an afternoon briefing, CBS News President
Sean McManus told reporters that Bradley will be
missed for his hard work and groundbreaking
stories, but also for his demeanor.
"You don't replace a man like Ed Bradley at any
news organization. He is a legend and we're
going to miss his work, but I think just as
important, we're going to miss Ed Bradley the
man," McManus said.
Bradley's groundbreaking journalism included an
interview with condemned Oklahoma City bomber
Timothy McVeigh — the only television interview
ever given by the man guilty of one of the worst
terrorist acts on American soil. It also earned
Bradley an Emmy.
His reporting on the worst school shooting in
American history, "Columbine," revealed that
authorities ignored telling evidence with which
they might have prevented the massacre.
Bradley was raised in a rough section of
Philadelphia, where he once recalled that his
parents sometimes worked 20-hour days at two
jobs apiece.
"I was told, 'You can be anything you want,
kid,'" he once told an interviewer. "When you
hear that often enough, you believe it."
After graduating from Cheney State College with
a degree in education, he launched his career as
a DJ and news reporter for a Philadelphia radio
station in 1963, moving to New York's WCBS radio
four years later.
Bradley's first job out of college was as a
sixth-grade teacher.
He joined CBS News as a stringer in the Paris
bureau in 1971, transferring a year later to the
Saigon bureau during the Vietnam War. It was the
story that put him on the map and almost killed
him, Stahl reports.
As Bradley explained in one interview: "People
were moved from Viet Cong areas into towns
controlled by the government. And all of a
sudden I heard this terrific noise ... if I had
not moved to sit on the side, I would have been
dead."
After reporting in Cambodia, Bradley moved to
the Washington bureau in June 1974, 14 months
after he was named a correspondent.
Other hour-long reports by Bradley prompted
praise and action: "Death by Denial" won a
Peabody Award for focusing on the plight of
Africans dying of AIDS and helped convince drug
companies to donate and discount AIDS drugs;
"Unsafe Haven" spurred federal investigations
into the nation's largest chain of psychiatric
hospitals; and "Town Under Siege," about a small
town battling toxic waste, was named one of the
Ten Best Television Programs of 1997 by Time
magazine.
Bradley's significant contribution to electronic
journalism was also recognized by the
Radio/Television News Directors Association when
it named him its Paul White Award winner for
2000, joining distinguished journalists such as
Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Peter
Jennings as a Paul White recipient.
More recently, the Denver Press Club awarded him
its 2003 Damon Runyon Award for career
journalistic excellence. Bradley also received
the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism
Awards grand prize and television first prize
for "CBS Reports: In the Killing Fields of
America," a documentary about violence in
America, for which he was co-anchor and
reporter.
His work on 60 Minutes gained him much
recognition, including a George Foster Peabody
Award for "Big Man, Big Voice," the uplifting
story of a German singer who became successful
despite birth defects. In 1995, he won his 11th
Emmy for a 60 Minutes segment on the cruel
effects of nuclear testing in the town of
Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan — a report that also
won him an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University
Award in 1994.
In 1983, two of Bradley’s reports for 60 Minutes
won Emmy Awards: "In the Belly of the Beast," an
interview with Jack Henry Abbott, a convicted
murderer and author, and "Lena," a profile of
singer Lena Horne. He received an Alfred I.
duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton and a
1991 Emmy Award for his report "Made in China,"
a look at Chinese forced-labor camps, and
another Emmy in 1992 for "Caitlin’s Story," an
examination of the controversy between the
parents of a deaf child and a deaf association.
In addition to "In the Killing Fields," his work
for "CBS Reports" included: "Enter the Jury
Room," an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University
Award winner that revealed the jury deliberation
process for the first time in front of network
cameras. A series of stories from 1979 were
award winners, including: "The Boat People,"
which won duPont, Emmy and Overseas Press Club
Awards; "The Boston Goes to China," a report on
the historic visit to China by the Boston
Symphony Orchestra, which won Emmy, Peabody and
Ohio State Awards, and "Blacks in America: With
All Deliberate Speed?," which won Emmy and
duPont Awards.
Bradley's coverage of the plight of Cambodian
refugees, broadcast on the CBS Evening News with
Walter Cronkite and CBS News Sunday Morning, won
a George Polk Award in journalism.
He also received a duPont citation for a segment
on the Cambodian situation broadcast on CBS
News' "Magazine" series. He covered the
presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter during
1976, served as a floor correspondent for CBS
News' coverage of the Democratic and Republican
National Conventions from 1976 through 1996, and
has participated in CBS News' election-night
coverage.
Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Bradley was a
principal correspondent for "CBS Reports" from
1978 to 1981, after serving as CBS News' White
House correspondent from 1976 to 1978. He was
also anchor of the "CBS Sunday Night News” from
1976 to 1981 and of the CBS News magazine
"Street Stories" from January 1992 to August
1993.
Bradley joined CBS News as a stringer in its
Paris bureau in September 1971. A year later, he
was transferred to the Saigon bureau, where he
remained until he was assigned to CBS News'
Washington bureau in June 1974. He was named a
CBS News correspondent in April 1973 and,
shortly thereafter, was wounded while on
assignment in Cambodia. In March 1975, he
volunteered to return to Indochina and covered
the fall of Cambodia and Vietnam.
What was Bradley's secret to getting such
renowned stories? CBS News chief Washington
correspondent Bob Schieffer said it was all in
his style.
"Ed knew everyone from Jimmy Carter to Jimmy
Buffett. He made people comfortable. He wasn't
the bulldog type reporter like Mike Wallace,"
Schieffer said. "He set people at ease and got
them to talk. Sometimes that was in their
interest and sometimes it wasn't. But he was
like Columbo, who had that disarming style and
the knack of getting that last answer out of
someone."
60 Minutes correspondent Steve Croft said: "I
think the thing that made him terrific was his
presence. There was a dignity about him ... the
French have a word for it, and that's savoir
faire — a perfect mix of style and substance."
Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia
Blanchet.
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Links
10.29.06 Last Story BP texas explosion
(difficulties completing) - pending
11.06.06 USS
Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Stuck In Mud
11.08.06 DL
Dustin Hoffman Jamie Oliver - sausage (links)
04.16.06 60 Minutes
Jamie Oliver story by Edward Bradley
11.10.06 Stranger
Than Fiction - In 1985, he received an Emmy Award
for
"Schizophrenia," a 60 MINUTES report on that
misunderstood brain disorder.
11.10.06 Jack Palance Died
At The Age Of 87
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Bio
Ed Bradley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
60 Minutes and CBS News Correspondent Ed
Bradley. (CBS)
(CBS) The 2005-06 season marks Correspondent Ed
Bradley's 25th on 60 MINUTES. He joined the
broadcast during the 1981-82 season. He also
anchors and reports hour-long specials.
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Bradley's consummate skills as a broadcast journalist
and his distinctive body of work have been recognized
with numerous awards, including 19 Emmys, the latest for
a segment that reported the reopening of the 50-year-old
racial murder case of Emmett Till. He received three
Emmys at the 2003 awards: a Lifetime Achievement Emmy;
one for a 60 MINUTES report on brain cancer patients, "A
New Lease on Life" (April 2002); and another for his
hour on 60 MINUTES II about sexual abuse in the Catholic
Church, "The Catholic Church on Trial" (June 2002).
Bradley's 60 MINUTES interview with condemned Oklahoma
City bomber Timothy McVeigh (March 2000) was the only
television interview ever given by the man guilty of one
of the worst terrorist acts on American soil; it also
earned Bradley an Emmy. His reporting on the worst
school shooting in American history, "Columbine" (April
2001), revealed on 60 MINUTES II that authorities
ignored telling evidence with which they might have
prevented the massacre.
Other hourlong reports by Bradley have prompted praise
and action: "Death by Denial" (June 2000) won a Peabody
Award for focusing on the plight of Africans dying of
AIDS and helped convince drug companies to donate and
discount AIDS drugs; "Unsafe Haven" (April 1999) spurred
federal investigations into the nation's largest chain
of psychiatric hospitals; and "Town Under Siege"
(December 1997), about a small town battling toxic
waste, was named one of the Ten Best Television Programs
of 1997 by Time magazine.
Bradley's significant contribution to electronic
journalism was also recognized by the Radio/Television
News Directors Association when it named him its Paul
White Award winner for 2000. He joins other
distinguished journalists, such as Edward R. Murrow,
Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings, as a Paul White
recipient.
More recently, the Denver Press Club awarded him its
2003 Damon Runyon Award for career journalistic
excellence. Another prestigious honor received by
Bradley is the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards grand
prize and television first prize for "CBS Reports: In
the Killing Fields of America" (January 1995), a
documentary about violence in America, for which he was
co-anchor and reporter.
His work on 60 MINUTES has gained much recognition,
including a George Foster Peabody Award for "Big Man,
Big Voice" (November 1997), the uplifting story of a
German singer who became successful despite birth
defects. In 1995, he won his 11th Emmy Award for a 60
MINUTES segment on the cruel effects of nuclear testing
in the town of Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, a report that
also won him an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University
Award in 1994. Also in 1994, he was honored with an
Overseas Press Club Award for two 60 MINUTES reports
that took viewers inside sensitive military
installations in Russia and the United States.
In 1985, he received an Emmy Award for
"Schizophrenia," a 60 MINUTES report on that
misunderstood brain disorder. In 1983, two of Bradley's
reports for 60 MINUTES won Emmy Awards: "In the Belly of
the Beast," an interview with Jack Henry Abbott, a
convicted murderer and author, and "Lena," a profile of
singer Lena Horne.
He received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University
Silver Baton and a 1991 Emmy Award for his 60 MINUTES
report "Made in China," a look at Chinese forced-labor
camps, and another Emmy for "Caitlin's Story" (November
1992), an examination of the controversy between the
parents of a deaf child and a deaf association.
In addition to "In the Killing Fields," his work for
"CBS Reports" has included: "Enter the Jury Room" (April
1997), an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award
winner that revealed the jury deliberation process for
the first time in front of network cameras; "The Boat
People" (January 1979), which won duPont, Emmy and
Overseas Press Club Awards; "The Boston Goes to China"
(April 1979), a report on the historic visit to China by
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which won Emmy, Peabody
and Ohio State Awards, and "Blacks in America: With All
Deliberate Speed?" (July 1979), which won Emmy and
duPont Awards.
Bradley's coverage of the plight of Cambodian refugees,
broadcast on the "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite"
and CBS NEWS SUNDAY MORNING, won a George Polk Award in
journalism. He also received a duPont citation for a
segment on the Cambodian situation broadcast on CBS
News' "Magazine" series. He covered the presidential
campaign of Jimmy Carter during Campaign '76, served as
a floor correspondent for CBS News' coverage of the
Democratic and Republican National Conventions from 1976
through 1996, and has participated in CBS News'
election-night coverage.
Prior to joining 60 MINUTES, Bradley was a principal
correspondent for "CBS Reports" (1978-81), after serving
as CBS News' White House correspondent (1976-78). He was
also anchor of the "CBS Sunday Night News" (November
1976-May 1981) and of the CBS News magazine "Street
Stories" (January 1992-August 1993).
Bradley joined CBS News as a stringer in its Paris
bureau in September 1971. A year later, he was
transferred to the Saigon bureau, where he remained
until he was assigned to the CBS News Washington bureau
in June 1974. He was named a CBS News correspondent in
April 1973 and, shortly thereafter, was wounded while on
assignment in Cambodia. In March 1975, he volunteered to
return to Indochina and covered the fall of Cambodia and
Vietnam.
Prior to joining CBS News, he was a reporter for WCBS
Radio, the CBS Owned station in New York (August
1967-July 1971). He had previously been a reporter for
WDAS Radio Philadelphia (1963-67).
Bradley was born June 22, 1941, in Philadelphia and was
graduated from Cheyney (Pa.) State College in 1964 with
a B.S. in education. He lives in New York with his wife,
Patricia Blanchet.
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